Fallacies

A fallacy is an error in reasoning resulting in a misconception, and possibly a false conclusion. A fallacious argument can be deductively invalid (a formal fallacy) or one that has false premises or insufficient inductive strength (an informal fallacy). Or the argument can be irrelevant to the issue being discussed.

A deductively invalid argument is one where the conclusion does not logically follow from the premises. That is , the conclusion can be false even if the premises are true. Thus a formal fallacy is fallacious only because of its logical form, regardless of its content.

On the other hand, an informal fallacy is fallacious because of its content, regardless of its form. An example of an informal fallacy is a conclusion that smoking does not cause cancer based on the anecdotal evidence of only one healthy smoker.

Here is a list of some of the more common fallacies, plus a few new ones.

• Accident fallacy
• Ad hoc fallacy
• Affirming the Consequent
• Affirming a disjunct
• Animistic fallacy
• Appeal to emotion
• Appeal to hypocrisy
• Appeal to Ignorance
• Appeal to the Minority
• Appeal to Nature Fallacy
• Appeal to ridicule
• Appeal to Spite
• Argument from Analogy
• Argument from Anecdote
• Argument from Authority
• Argument from Consequences
• Argument from Fallacy
• Argument from Faith (in prep)
• Argument from false or misleading authority
• Argument by Gibberish
• Argument from Popularity
• Argument from Tradition
• Argument to Moderation
• Association fallacy
• Base rate fallacy
• Begging the question
• Blaming the Victim
• Bystander effect
• Can does not imply ought
• Category error
• Centrifugal force fiction
• Chemophobia
• Circular reasoning fallacy
• Collecting the wrong information
• Common sense fallacy
• Confirmation bias
• Confusing cause and effect
• Confusing correlation with causation
• Conjunction fallacy
• Consent to risk fallacy
• Conspiracy theory
• Content-free management
• Co-ordination fallacy
• Criticism of religion is not bigotry, let alone racism (in prep)
• Cultural universals vs cultural relativism
• David and Goliath Fallacy
• Denialism
• Denying the antecedent
• Doctrine of absurdity
• Doublethink
• Dunning–Kruger effect
• Ecological fallacy
• Egocentric predicament
• Einstellung effect
• Epistemic equivalence (in prep)
• Equivocation fallacy 
• Etymological fallacy
• Fallacies of Composition and Division
• Fallacy of Inferred Insensitivity
• False analogy
• False balance
• False dilemma
• False equivalence
• Faulty generalisation
• Faulty risk assessment
• Fixation error (in preparation)
• Formality fallacy (in prep)
• Fragmentation of meanings (in preparation)
• Galileo gambit
• Gambler’s fallacy
• Genetic fallacy
• Glittering generality
• Greenwashing
• Groupthink
• Guilt by association fallacy
• Herd behaviour
• Historian’s fallacy
• ‘I’m entitled to my opinion’
• Independence of irrelevant alternatives
• Inflation of conflict fallacy
• Invincible ignorance (in prep)
• ‘It’s only a theory’
• Moral equivalence
• Moving the goalposts
• Noble cause corruption
• Non-apology apology
• Non sequitur
• No true Scotsman
• Obscurantism
• Perfect solution fallacy
• Poisoning the well
• Preference Failure
• Presentism fallacy
• Proposals are not propositions (in prep)
• Pseudoprofundity
• Psychobabble
• Psychologism
• Quantitative fallacy
• Recommendation fallacy 
• Red herring fallacy
• Reductio ad absurdum fallacy
• Reification fallacy
• Relativism
• Reverse causation fallacy
• Russell’s Teapot
• Scientific Conspiracy Fallacy
• The Folly of Scientism
• ‘That’s just semantics’ (in prep)
• Sharpshooter fallacy
• Special Pleading
• The Slippery Slope
• Supply/Demand Fallacy (in prep)
• Stacking the deck fallacy
• Straw Man Fallacy
• Sunk Cost Fallacy
• Technobabble
• Technophobia
• There are no ‘judicial inquiries’
• Three more fallacies of relevance
• Travel expenses are not ‘entitlements’
• Tribal truth fallacy
• Tu quoque
• Two Twin Fallacies
• Virtue signalling
• Weasel words
• Whataboutery
• Why anti-vaxxers get it so wrong
• Wishful thinking
• ’You can’t stop progress’ (in preparation)
• Zero Sum Fallacy

More fallacies are available at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Copyright notice: Except for personal use or as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act, no part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, communicated or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission. All inquiries should be made to the copyright owner, Tim Harding at tim.harding@yandoo.com, or as attributed on individual blog posts.

If you find the information on this blog useful, you might like to consider supporting us.